Karl Otto Götz is one of the most important painters of the German Informel. His painting is non-representational, non-abstracting, not derived from nameable objects or landscapes. His painting is pure painting, quasi in its original state, fluid, spontaneous, expressive – without a depictive function or illusionistic depth effect. In the early 1950s Götz spreads his brush strokes and squeegee strokes completely freely, spontaneously and loosely over the canvas. Since 1954 his painting and squeegee rhythms follow certain pictorial schemes. These schemes are characterized by comparable divisions and rhythms, but can only be approximately named with words such as “vortex pictures,” “waterfalls,” or “grottos.” The speed of color application is extremely high. Instead of clearly delineated forms, the scraps of paint spatulaed and flung onto the canvas form transitions and interlocks everywhere beyond classical principles of form.
He negates the constricting forms of the brushstroke of previous non-objective painting directions as well as the “cold abstraction” of constructed compositions.
By exposing his artistic action very experimentally to the unreflective, spontaneous painting gesture, pouring the paint and distributing it with brushes or squeegees, he challenges the instantaneous happening.
www.ftn-books.com has several Gotz publications available. Among them one from the Kunsthof Vicht with a handwritten, signed and dedicated cover.
